A Review of Part of Rifdon's Survey of Devon; containing the General Defcription of that County; with Corrections, Anno tations, and Additions. By the late William Chapple, of Exeter. 4to. 6s. in Boards. Thorn, Exeter. ROM a neat, well-written Life of Mr. Chapple, prefixed FR to this volume, we perceive that he was a man whofe industry and attention were fully equal to the work which he had undertaken; and we have little doubt but that he would have produced a valuable edition of a book at prefent almost obfolete, and scarcely to be purchased. At the fame time, with all our regard for attentive and accurate enquiry, we do not approve of his fpecimen: his labour is mifapplied, and his attention has been mifdirected. He is fo careful and exact to render Rifdon intelligible, and fo anxious left his additions fhould be confounded with the original work, that his language is read with difficulty: he is even obfcure from his cagerness to explain. But to thofe who can forget an ungraceful manner when they receive inftruction, this Review will be an useful companion. The text is collated with the most valuable manufcripts; omiflions are restored, and errors amended. We need not fay that the notes are full, for Mr. Chapple feems not to have been fparing of his pains in any thing he undertook; and indeed if he was as earnest to procure information, as we find him to be in conveying it, with the most minute precifion, no life could have been long enough for his work; for, like Sterne, he must have lived faster than he could posfibly have written. Devonshire, though rich and fertile in many refpects, has not yet produced a natural hiftorian, whofe affection to his native foil has led him to examine and defcribe its productions. The little which Mr. Chapple mentions in his general account is fo unfatisfactory, that curiofity is rather raifed than gratified. The following note, however, on the load-flone, we fhall extract, for its utility. Our author's words here are," for it directs the needle of the failor's compafs to the North, being but touched therewith;" and indeed when he wrote, it had little deviation from it, and that little was then rather easterly, than wefterly as at prefent: but it is now well known that the very variation (as tis called) of the magnetic needle, is itfelf continually varying, both with refpect to time and place; being different in different places at the fame time, and at different times in the fame place, and though it was formerly eafterly, the needle has long fince paffed the north point, and in this part of the world now declines many degrees to the west thereof. The va VOL. LX. Sept. 1785. riation riation here at Exeter and in its neighbourhood is at prefent, (viz. in November 1772,) no less than 22 degrees and 3 quarters wefterly, as I have found by accurate obfervations; fo that here, the needle, at this time, points nearly north-north-west, and this its variation or declination is continually increafing, (perhaps more regularly than is generally supposed,) at the rate of about one degree, or a very trifle more, in 6 years; as is evident from a comparifon of the prefent with the former obfervations made at Exeter for more than 50 years paft: for in 1718, a judicious obferver found it to be here 13° 20′ wefterly; on the 20th of May 1762, I found it increafed to 21 degrees; and now to at leaft 223 as above; fo that in 1780, we may expect it to become full 24 degrees.-This hint, 'tis prefumed, will not be deemed impertinent in a work of this kind; and may not be unacceptable to fome readers, whose business may occafionally require the ufe of the magnetic needle, in thefe western parts; or whofe curiofity may prompt them to compare these with future obfervations of their own.' The account of Cornwall is almost wholly the work of Mr. Chapple; but we find little in it which is very useful or interefting, as the greater part relates to its ancient history, in which there is much uncertainty, and fome fable. We fhall felect Mr. Chapple's Philippic against China, as a fpecimen of his very peculiar manner. This mimic filver was much efteemed by the ancients, who properly judged of its value from its ufes and its beauty: whence we may infer, they were ftrangers to the capricious taste of fome moderns, who fancy their tables and beaufeats more elegantly adorned by the far-fetched and dear-bought manufactures of the Chinese, than by the more useful and convenient, but much less expensive utensils that might be had for the fame purpofes nearer home. Thefe, however conducive their purchase to the fupport of their poor neighbours, can expect no quarter with thofe, who prefer a collection of China even to the most fuperb fervices of well-wrought plate: defpifing the curious workmanfhip of the latter, which fuperadds new beauties to its native luftre; but admiring the moist and foapy glofs of the former, and charmed with its deformities and blemithes; efpecially if it be (as it commonly is,) ftained and disfigured by the clumfy drawings of unnatural monfters and pagods, whofe uglinefles the more forcibly ftrike the offended eye by the vividity of their colours, and the reflection of a fort of horrible glare from the eyes and scales of ferpents and dragons depicted on the vitrified furface. But fashion gives a fanction to the greateft abfurdities, and progreffively communicates its infection from the great vulgar to the little. Hence our yeomanry aukwardly aping the gentry, no longer, like their frugal ancestors, confne their folicitude to fatisfy the demands of neceffity and conveniency; but lavish the advanced income of of their farms (acquired by the greater dearth of their produce, and too often from the unrewarded toil of their half-paid and half-ftarved labourers) to obtain a share in the vanities and follies of their fuperiors: facrificing folid advantages to empty trifles and useless baubles; and common prudence to the ridiculous affectation of a falfe though fashionable taste. The capacious tankard of double-racked cyder, or wholesome, though home-brewed, October beer, improved by the addition of a nutbrown toast, with which, and perhaps a broiled rasher or a fteak of hung beef, the hofpitable Franklin of the last century could regale himself, his neighbours, and friends,-are now rejected for a complete fet of tea-tackle and a fugar-loaf; the bounties of Ceres and Pomona undervalued; and the difpiriting infufion of the leaves of an Afiatic fhrub, preferred to the exhilerating beverage derived from the red-ftreak apple-tree or the barley mow. The glittering rows of plates and platters, which of yore adorned the dreffer and fhelves of the neat and oeconomic houfe-wife, give place to frangible earthen dishes and faucers, lefs fit for their purposes than even the wooden trenchers in ufe before the neglect to cultivate and preserve our timber made more work for the miners, pewterers, and cutlers. But glazed earthen plates must now dull the edges of our knives; and the country 'fquire, to keep a ftep higher than his neighbouring farmers, to please his modifh madam, and escape being cenfured as a tastelefs churl, muft prefer the brittleness and frailty of Drefden porcelain to the folidity and permanence of Danmonian pewter.' The editor wishes to have continued the work, if a proper affistant could have been procured. But, as Rifdon's Survey is much mutilated, and very scarce, we would recommend the re-publication of one of the best manufcripts, probably that of Mr. Southcombe, of Rofe-Afh, which appears to have been the property of Mr. Giles Rifdon, our author's eldest fon, together with the notes and corrections by Mr. Chapple, which till remain. In this way, with little labour, the public may obtain an accurate account of the ancient state of the very refpectable county which was the object of our author's re view. Landscapes in Verfe. Taken in Spring. By the Author of Sympathy. Second Edition. 4to. 2s. 6d. Becket. THeodorus, an enthufiaft in love and poetry, is introduced as bewailing the abfence of his Cleone, and drawing a melancholy kind of fatisfaction, which fenfibility only can feel or conceive, from reflecting on the object of his paffion, and contemplating the rural fcenes around him. He hails the deep folitude, 0 2 Sacred Sacred to love, to filence, to Cleone." Come, with Imagination's pregnant store Of fragrance heavenly fweet, and hue divine.. Finer than threaded fun-beams-know’st to dress Unblemish'd from the tomb, in all their charms.' We object but to one word in the above paffage, and that we should have fufpected to have been owing to an error in the prefs, had it not been retained in the fecond edition: for know't, in the ninth line, we must read knozes, to render it grammatical. Theodorus proceeds farther to invoke Fancy, and illuftrates her power by imagining Cleone prefent, and participating with him the pleasure which natural objects afford to the contemplative and fentimental mind. As they reft awhile on the ' fkyey fummit,' he introduces a description, which those who have loved will undoubtedly feel, of the pleasures arifing from a mutual affection. The joy of admiration undifturb'd; The ardent gaze of fondness o'er the face They proceed to trace the varied beauties of the vale ;" and then, under the infpiration of Fancy, now introduced as feated on the hill,' he etches' the vernal landscape in fuch a manner as proves that the deity, fo often introduced, has not been offended with our author's frequent invocation. After having exhibited a picturefque delineation of various objects, he hears "The village bell with melancholy found Ring out the knell of death.' The thought which it excites in Theodorus, of the mifery the muft feel, fhould he furvive his Cleone, is well introduced,' and the paffage tender and affecting. He now hears the frequent repetition of O frail mortality! Re-ecchoed thro' the hollow of the grove.' From the furrounding foliage rufhing forth In mourning garments-diforder'd locks For clamour too profound:-'Twas dumb defpair. Knoll'd thro' the firs: the falling fhades of night I crofs'd his path-his eyes were bent on heav'n :- This description is nervous and energetic. An episode follows, which informs us who this man of forrow' was. The ftory, though much inferior, bears fome affinity to that of Celadon and Amelia, in Thomfon's Seafons. The marriageday is fixed for the two lovers, Fanny and Agenor on the preceding evening; .. Season of univerfal calm! all breath'd : From all eyes but their own! Such sweets to taste, All thofe who have felt true paffion' are called upon to tell, we should rather read conceive or imagine, ' |